Widows of Civil War - Connections to Another Era

She was the widow of the most romanticized general of the Civil War. Mary Anna Jackson, the wife of Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, wrote two books about her husband's life, including some of his letters in one book. Mrs. Jackson never remarried, and was known as the "Widow of the Confederacy." She living until 1915. From the general's death until hers, she always wore widow's weeds, the black garments of mourning.

But there were many other widows of the Civil War. Improbable though it seems, it is possible that one widow still lives.

Alberta Martin was believed to have been the last living widow of a Confederate soldier. She was born in Alabama in 1906. In 1927 the then-21-year-old Stewart married 81 year old William Martin, a veteran of the 4th Alabama Infantry during the Civil War. It was partly a marriage of convenience, as his $50-per-month Confederate pension check provided the impoverished Alberta Farrow some degree of financial security. Ten months after the wedding Alberta gave birth to Willie Martin.

Mrs. Martin lived in obscurity until gaining media attention starting in the 1990s. She became the belle of Civil War-themed parades and gatherings. The state of Alabama had long since stopped issuing pension checks to widows of Confederate veterans since all were believed to be dead. But with assistance from the Sons of Confederate Veterans, in 1996 Alberta began receiving a regular Confederate widow's pension.

Alberta's death in 2004 was seemingly the last living link to the Civil War. But the publicity surrounded her death prompted relatives of Maudie Celia Hopkins of Arkansas to reveal that she was in fact the last civil war widow. Hopkins had married 86-year-old William Cantrell on Feb. 2, 1934, when she was 19. She did so to escape poverty, but always kept quiet about the marriage. Bill Cantrell, a veteran of the Virginia Infantry, helped to support Hopkins with his Confederate pension checks.

Maudie Celia Hopkins died at age 93 in 2008. She may or may not have been the last of the Civil War widows. The final wave of Civil War veterans died in the years following World War Two. Thus, the possibility of another widow of a Civil War veteran coming forward will be with us until at least 2025.

The Real Story of Colorado's Stanley Hotel

Some of the tales of the majestic Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado are well known. Steven King used the hotel as inspiration for his novel and subsequent blockbuster movie The Shining. The Stanley is considered one of America's most haunted hotels, something hotel management is not shy about promoting (witness the hotel's own website, http://www.stanleyhotel.com/history, and the official "ghost tour" given each day.).

Dig deeper and one discovers the eccentric brothers, F. O. and F. E. Stanley, builders of the hotel and inventors of the famous Stanley Steamer automobile in 1897. But read on to discover that part of the story you probably don't know:

The Stanleys' horseless carriage was the monster car of its era, featuring a 10-horsepower, two-cylinder engine with only 13 moving parts. The power source was steam, of course. The steam was heated by kerosene, which also illuminated the headlights. In 1907, a Stanley Steamer set a world speed record of 127.65 miles per hour. And although the standard roadster version of the Steamer could do 60 miles per hour, unfortunately at top speed it would be running faster than the primitive brakes could stop it.

Handsome profits from the Steamer were used to build the Stanley Hotel. But there is a more profound connection between automobile and hotel. The hotel was specifically designed to be the world's first resort hotel reached by auto. Prior to this time, all resort hotels received their guests via railroad or boat.

So it was that F.O. Stanley's financing of a mountain road from near Denver to Estes Park was for the sole purpose of transporting hotel guests via his fleet of Stanley Steamers. They were magnificent mountain cars, with direct drive spur gears that allowed the machines to climb like a goat. Automobile historian Ed Howard claims that a Stanley Steamer cannot stall, and could easily climb up the steep front steps of the Stanley Hotel. While there is no evidence of that stunt being performed, it is true that F.O. once drove a Stanley Steamer up the steps of the U.S. Capitol!